La Carbonara Will Soon Serve $15-and-Under Italian Near the Meatpacking

The shuttering of Due Amici isn’t the only change on West 14th Street. Primitivo has been taken over by the New York City Restaurant Group, which operates Nero nearby as well as fifteen other restaurants, and on March 16 it will reopen as La Carbonara, a traditional Italian spot where entrées will be $15 and under and bottles of wine will mostly be under $20. “I’m serving food at prices I was doing fifteen years ago!” says co-owner Enrico Malta.

Malta and his brother Bobby have given a piece of the restaurant to Giuliano Matarese, who worked as a sous-chef at Aureole before becoming the head toque at Nero. Matarese had a reputation for being a little foam-happy at another one of the restaurants, Tre, but he’s going very much back to the basics here, serving staples like spaghetti carbonara and rabbit cacciatore. The dining room will have a rustic look (wood-plank floors, antique lighting, chairs with straw seats), and at the bar, you’ll be able to order a Scorpion (lemon sorbet, vodka, champagne, and raspberry sauce).

So how are the Malta brothers’ other restaurants doing? “In the ones that are very reasonably priced I see more of the suits that used to go to the higher restaurants,” says Enrico. “The ones that were a little higher priced, I’m adjusting the prices right now.” Here’s the dinner menu — lunch will launch soon after.